Spreadsheet Exercises In Ecology And Evolution
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Spreadsheet Exercises in Ecology and Evolution
Author: Therese Marie Donovan
language: en
Publisher: Sinauer Associates Incorporated
Release Date: 2002
The exercises in this unique book allow students to use spreadsheet programs such as Microsoftr Excel to create working population models. The book contains basic spreadsheet exercises that explicate the concepts of statistical distributions, hypothesis testing and power, sampling techniques, and Leslie matrices. It contains exercises for modeling such crucial factors as population growth, life histories, reproductive success, demographic stochasticity, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, metapopulation dynamics, predator-prey interactions (Lotka-Volterra models), and many others. Building models using these exercises gives students "hands-on" information about what parameters are important in each model, how different parameters relate to each other, and how changing the parameters affects outcomes. The "mystery" of the mathematics dissolves as the spreadsheets produce tangible graphic results. Each exercise grew from hands-on use in the authors' classrooms. Each begins with a list of objectives, background information that includes standard mathematical formulae, and annotated step-by-step instructions for using this information to create a working model. Students then examine how changing the parameters affects model outcomes and, through a set of guided questions, are challenged to develop their models further. In the process, they become proficient with many of the functions available on spreadsheet programs and learn to write and use complex but useful macros. Spreadsheet Exercises in Ecology and Evolution can be used independently as the basis of a course in quantitative ecology and its applications or as an invaluable supplement to undergraduate textbooks in ecology, population biology, evolution, and population genetics.
Carrion Ecology, Evolution, and Their Applications
The first edition of Carrion Ecology, Evolution, and Their Applications brought together multiple scientific disciplines to shed light on the importance of carrion within the context of ecology and evolutionary biology, and through applications ranging from human mass disasters to habitat/ecosystem conservation. This second edition builds upon this foundation to include a huge amount of new research, consisting of 33 chapters—9 brand new and the remaining 24 substantially updated and expanded. One of the most significant changes for this edition is the coverage of aquatic ecosystems, both freshwater and marine. The book is now represented by 73 authors from eight countries, incorporating more diverse perspectives and engagement into this multidisciplinary and expanding science. The resulting new edition showcases a broader scope of topics, geographic areas, ecosystems and history of carrion ecology, evolution, and their applications for humanity. It provides the most comprehensive resource on carrion from all ecosystems of the world. The student, academic, and professional will find this book insightful, providing new insights for the fields of molecular ecology, microbiology, entomology, population biology, community and ecosystem ecology, as well as applications in forensics and human and environmental health.
Environmental Modeling
Increasingly used to represent climatic, biogeochemical, and ecological systems, computer modeling has become an important tool that should be in every environmental professional’s toolbox. Environmental Modeling: A Practical Introduction is just what it purports to be, a practical introduction to the various methods, techniques, and skills required for computerized environmental modeling. Exploring the broad arena of environmental modeling, the book demonstrates how to represent an environmental problem in conceptual terms, formalize the conceptual model using mathematical expressions, convert the mathematical model into a program that can be run on a desktop or laptop computer, and examine the results produced by the computational model. Equally important, the book imparts skills that allow you to develop, implement, and experiment with a range of computerized environmental models. The emphasis is on active engagement in the modeling process rather than on passive learning about a suite of well-established models. The author takes a practical approach throughout, one that does not get bogged down in the details of the underlying mathematics and that encourages learning through “hands on” experimentation. He provides a set of software tools and data sets that you can use to work through the various examples and exercises presented in each chapter, as well as presentational material and handouts for course tutors. Comprehensive and up-to-date, the book discusses how computational models can be used to represent environmental systems and illustrates how such models improve understanding of the ways in which environmental systems function.